Artificial Intelligence, ‘ Virtual Biopsies ’ May Be The Future Of Understanding Brain Tumors

BOSTON (CBS) — Artificial intelligence is being used increasingly in medicine to make services more efficient and improve patient care. Now, local researchers plan to use the technology to perform “virtual biopsies” of brain tumors. Steven Hibbert considered himself a healthy guy. Then suddenly his life changed on a dime. “I was just kind of sitting there, reading the paper, and went into a seizure,” said Hibbert. The 55-year-old Cape Cod resident was rushed to the hospital and got the news no one wants to hear. He had a brain tumor. “Life changing as my wife always says,” explained Hibbert. “It feels like everything got flipped over in our life.” Steven Hibbert (WBZ-TV) While Hibbert’s tumor was clearly visible on scans, doctors could not tell what type it was without removing it, so this past January, Steven underwent surgery. He still had to wait two long weeks for genetic analysis to finally learn he had a grade 3 anaplastic astrocytoma. Dr. Omar Arnaout of Brigham and Women’s Hospital is Steven’s neurosurgeon. “How good would it be if I knew ahead of time before, we did surgery, what it is — and even better if I knew what kind of mutations it had — so I can tell him and his family upfront ‘here is your diagnosis, here is your prognosis and then here is what we need to do about it.’ And some cases, not his but in some cases, that can lead to avoiding surgery completely if you have an inoperable brain tumor...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Boston News Health Healthwatch Seen On WBZ-TV Syndicated Local Artificial Intelligence brain tumor Cape Cod Dr. Mallika Marshall Health News Source Type: news